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Tutorial: Creating an abstract chaos explosion

Written by devvv,
translated by redforce ·
Created on Dec 21, 2008, last updated about 4 years ago

Motivation

I saw this tutorial recently for Photoshop and have ported it to GIMP. Doing this effect is quite simple and you will achieve good results even if you have no GIMP experience. We will create an "abstract explosion" with a little painting and a few filters. Have fun!

- In the layers window (show with Ctrl+L), create a new transparent layer.
- Choose the color #ffa200 as the foreground color.
- Select the pencil tool with the “Circle (3)” brush.
- Then draw some mazy lines on the new layer.

3

Now choose

- Filters / Blur / Motion Blur

There you select blur type “Zoom” and set the blur parameter “Length” to 90. Don’t modify the other values. Make sure that “Blur outward” is not selected.

4

To intensify the colors, duplicate the layer and change the layer mode to “grain merge”:

- In the layers window, press the “duplicate” button.
- Select the top layer (the one that has been created by the duplication)
- A bit above, you can find a dropdown menu named “mode”. There you select “grain merge”.